Sarah Stevenson narrowly missed out on joining Britain's medal parade on Friday when she lost her bronze medal fight on points against Yoriko Okamoto of Japan in the women's taekwondo under-67kg class.

The 6-5 defeat was an excruciating blow for the 23-year-old from Doncaster who only just missed out on the gold medal fight earlier today.

After winning her two opening clashes with Monica Deyhanira of Mexico (8-4) and He Lumin of China (6-5), Stevenson needed to beat Norwegian Trund Gundersen to reach the title bout.

She took the lead in the first round, and after a spectacular axe kick, finished the round leading 2-0.

But Gundersen came back to even the score at 2-2 and was eventually awarded the contest on superiority due to her aggressive attack late in the fight.

The Briton, because she had won two matches, went immediately into the second repechage and capitalised by beating Kirsimarja Koskinen of Finland 7-4, putting her into the bronze medal showdown.

Okamoto and Stevenson spent the first half faking kicks to test their opponents' reactions.

It was not until Okamoto landed a roundhouse on the Brit that both began to take on a more attacking position.

By the end of the round, the Japanese woman had a two-point lead with Stevenson yet to score.

But the Brit fought back in the next round, connecting with a roundhouse to Okamoto's torso and landing an axe kick to the shoulder to earn two points.

In the final round, Stevenson was able to level the score at 4-4 using mainly roundhouse kicks.

Her opponent's strong defence and hits to Stevenson's scoring zone, however, allowed her to win the round by a narrow margin.

Stevenson said: "I wanted to take the bronze medal home, but I didn't - I'm still young and it was a good experience after all."